Summon Mana Viper

Summon Mana Viper is a level 5 Hexes/Summoning spell which summons a mana viper.

Useful Info

A single mana viper is summoned. These monsters' bites inflict antimagic, reducing the chance that monsters cast wizardly or magical spells.

Higher spell power increases the hit dice of the creature. The mana viper's HD equals 7 + <power> / 12, rounded in a weighted manner.<ref>Template:Source ref</ref> This increases HP, accuracy, and the strength of the antimagic bite.

Duration of the summon is around 18 turns; it does not depend on the spell power.

There is a summon cap of 1; casting the spell again will cause the old summon to very quickly time out.

Strategy

Mana vipers are fast and moderately durable, but are most notable for their antimagic bite. The antimagic status gives a % chance for monsters to fail their spells. The more antimagic a monster has, the greater the failure rate. Antimagic is very effective against spellcasters and demons.

Theoretically, mana vipers can be used against endgame threats like ancient liches, orbs of fire, and fiends. But vipers aren't the strongest creatures, and you can only summon one at a time. So it's likely that the viper just dies (or gets abjured). This spell can work against them, but don't rely on it.

Against non-magical targets, mana vipers are alright. Better than a canine or ice beast, but not amazingly so. If you want a raw combat summon, cactus giants are a much better bet.

Monster Version

Creates multiple mana vipers based on the spell power, their hit dice is not adjusted from the base monster. Duration is the same as the player version.

History

• Prior to 0.31, mana vipers' HD was 1 lower.
• Prior to 0.30, mana vipers' HP did not scale with spellpower, resulting in less HP overall. Also, their HD was 1 lower.
• Prior to 0.28, this spell had a summon cap of two.
• Summon Mana Viper was added in 0.14.

References

<references/>